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Russian diplomat assures blocking terrorist content on Internet doesn’t curtail democracy

According to the diplomat, Russia is faced with the fact that "radicalization primarily originates from the Internet"

BRATISLAVA, March 26. /TASS/. Russia will continue to block terrorist content on the Internet and does not regard such actions to be a violation of human rights, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister on countering terrorism Oleg Syromolotov said in an interview with TASS.

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According to the diplomat, like many other countries, Russia is faced with the fact that "radicalization primarily originates from the Internet."

"For 15 years, we’ve been accused of blocking terrorist content and so on, and that it is a violation of human rights. However, at a UN General Assembly session in 2016, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that blocking such content is perfectly in line with democracy. Then, French President Emmanuel Macron echoed her statement and, later, so did the German Foreign Minister. They all said that it is a democratic move, as it turns out," Syromolotov emphasized.

By the same token, the deputy foreign minister put the spotlight on the differences between the Russian and Western approaches. "We block content using court orders, yet they do it automatically," Syromolotov pointed out.

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